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Modern Description: A polis within the district of Parrhasia. Geographically isolated, Phigalia was linked historically with S Triphylia (viz., Lepreon) and the upper Messenian plain. The city (1500 x 2500 m) spreads over an uneven plateau 300 m above the deep gorge of the Neda river which permitted access to the coast of Triphylia 15 km to the W. Citizens frequently aided Messenians in their wars and revolts against Sparta; in reprisal, the Spartans beseiged and occupied Phigalia several times in the 7th and 6th c. B.C. and between 421 to ca. 414 B.C. and again ca. 401-395. In Hellenistic times Phigalia was a member of the Aitolian and Achean Leagues; in the Roman period it went into decline, but has remained continuously occupied.
The site is unexcavated, but chance finds indicate that the site was occupied by the Late Bronze Age; considerable remains of the archaic, Classical, and Roman periods lie exposed. Fortification walls are preserved for a length of ca. one km along the E and N sides of the acropolis and stand to heights of 10 m in some parts. Stretches of the circuit may date as early as the 5th c. B.C. but in the mid 4th c. B.C. portions were rebuilt for the addition of square and circular towers. An outer, but uncharted, circuit of walls exists to the far W of the city.
In the SE a Hellenistic fountain-house continues to function; nearby, a Byzantine Chapel of the Panagia is built into the superstructure of an Ionic building. In the W section a long stoa with shafts of several columns still in situ delineates one side of an open, level area which appears to be the agora. Adjacent, a destroyed chapel contains architectural members from a building of the Classical period. An archaic kouros, found here in 1890, is now at Olympia and perhaps is to be identified as the victor Arrachion (564 B.C.), described by Pausanias. A Sanctuary to Athena is on a low hill to the W, overlooking the agora.
The acropolis of the city (elev. 720 m) lies in the N sector. A Sanctuary to Artemis Soteirias is on the crown, now occupied by a Church to Haghios Elias. Chamber tombs line the scarps of surrounding hills. Numerous but unidentified monuments are scattered throughout the confines of the city. Ancient sources attest to the existence of a Polemarchion, a theater, a gymnasium, a Temple of Dionysos Akratophoros, Sanctuaries of Hygeia and Asklepios, and Heroons of the Oresthasions and Lepreos. (F. A. COOPER)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phigalia
Wikidata ID: Q7623270
Trismegistos Geo: 37703
Manto: 10055494

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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